Joseph c



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOSEPH O. G. KENNEDY, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

PROTECTING BOUND BOOKS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 42,779, dated May 17, 1364.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JOSEPH G. G. KENNE- Dv, of Washington city, in the District of Co- I imbia, have invented a new and Improved mode of Protecting Bound Books from Injury in Transportation; andI do hereby declare t'lat the following isa full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the a `companying drawings, making part of this specification, and in which- IIigure l represents a view in perspective of a book having my improvement applied. Fig. 2 represents a similar View of one ofthe slats for protecting the top and bottom edges of the book, and Fig. 3 a similar view ofthe slat for protecting the front edge of the same.

All the known modes ofwrapping and packing books to secure their bindings against injury from transportation and rough handling, more especially in the public mails, are not only more expensive, but inethcient, for it is a rare occurrence to receive a book that is sent by mail any distance without finding the binding broken on the edges or corners.

Now, it is the object of my invention to provide a cheap and effectual protection for the binding of books while being transported by mail or otherwise, or against rough handling; and to this end my invention consists in packing the space around the edges of books between the projecting edges of the covers with a light rigid material, and so that the outer faces or edges of the packing shall be flush, or on the same plane with theprojecting edges ofthe binding.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe its construction and operation.

The top and bottom edges of the book are covered with slats A, of any cheap material l that is rigid, those made of wood are found cheap and efticient, although strips of binders board or other refuse ofthe kind, it is obvious,

may be substituted. The slats A must be of the precise width of the space between the projecting covers, and have plane parallel edges. They must also be as long as andjust as thick as the projection ofthe covers, so that when placed between the covers they shall neatly fill the space between the top and bottom projections of the binding. At their rear ends, a, these slats must be made convex to match the concave projecting edge ofthe back of the book.

For the front of the book aslat, B, is used, convex on one side and plain on the other, and this must also be ot' exactly the length, width, and thickness necessary to iill the space hetween the top and bottom slats and between the outer edgesof the'binding and the paper constituting the book. Thus when these slats are placed in position, and the book receives the usual wrapper and string, they are all rmly secured together, and form a plane edge with the outer edge of the binding, and thus the projecting binding is eectually secured against being bruised or broken on the sides or corners, though handled in the rough` est manner, or transported by mailfor any distance, and this without increasing the size of the package.

`\Vhat I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, 1s-

lhe application ot' a rigid packing between the projecting edges of the covers of bound books, when arranged substantially in the manner and for the purpose hereinabove set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto suby scribed my name.

l Jos. o. G. KENNEDY.

Afitnesses J. SNOWDEN BELL, JOHN S. HoLLrNGsHEAD. 

